Americans power their way to top spot in grouping

TEAM USA 3, CANADA 1

toronto» Colin White and Jordan Greenway scored early power-play goals and Joseph Woll made 25 saves to help the United States beat Canada 3-1 on Saturday for the top spot in Group B in the world junior hockey championship.

Jeremy Bracco also scored for the United States (4-0-0), set to play Switzerland in the quarterfinals Monday in Toronto.

“We kept our game simple and did what we had to do,” Greenway said. “Our forwards, our defensemen, everyone was blocking shots when they had to. We have great chemistry playing defense as a team.”

Greenway plays at Boston University, White and Woll at Boston College, and Bracco for Kitchener in the Ontario Hockey League.

“This was a tough road game to play and I’m proud of every one of these guys for the effort they gave to get the win,” said coach Bob Motzko of St. Cloud State. “We’ve been happy with our team for a while now, but tonight we overcame adversity and played with a lot of fire. We haven’t won anything yet, though. We’ll enjoy this tonight, but starting tomorrow it’s time to turn our attention to the playoff round.”

Thomas Chabot scored on a 5on-3 power play for Canada.

Canada will face the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals.

The Americans scored on two of their first three shots.

With Tyson Jost off for goalie interference, White scored at 4:31 by one-timing a pass from Greenway. Canadian defenseman Philippe Myers was called for kneeing less than a minute later and the Americans again took advantage. Greenway gathered the puck down low and breezed through the top of the crease untouched to tuck the puck past Connor Ingram at 6:04.

U.S. captain Luke Kunin was tossed from the game early in the second period. He flattened Myers behind the net and was given a five-minute interference major and game misconduct.